Man held in daughter's death dies of heart attack: authorities

Man held in daughter's death dies of apparent heart attack while in jail

A Chicago man awaiting trial in the violent death of his 8-year-old daughter died this morning of an apparent heart attack, sheriff’s officials said.

Andre Ford, 29, was pronounced dead shortly before 9 a.m. in the medical unit of Cook County Jail.

Ford and his mother, Helen Ford, 52, have been held without bail since the death of Gizzell, whose battered body was found in her grandmother’s Austin apartment in July 2013. The child had been beaten and strangled, authorities said.

Charged with murder in her death, Ford and his mother were due in court again Sept. 10. Both have pleaded not guilty.

A Cook County judge had awarded custody of Gizzell to her disabled father just eight months before her death.

“He has been in poor health since his admission to the jail and has spent considerable time between the jail and (the hospital) during his time in custody,” said Cara Smith, the jail’s executive director.

A 2013 Tribune investigation into Gizzell’s death found that an investigator with the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services failed to spot signs of trouble after visiting the apartment one month before the child’s death.

The newspaper also disclosed that a respected child abuse doctor who examined Gizzell weeks before her death had questioned the grandmother about a suspicious injury on the child’s buttocks. But he did not call the DCFS hotline, according to agency reports.

The only government intervention in the girl’s short life came eight months before her death when a Cook County judge awarded temporary custody to Andre Ford, an unemployed felon who lived with his mother and used a wheelchair due to his debilitating illness.

The child’s mother, Sandra Mercado, recently filed a lawsuit accusing DCFS and the doctor of failing to protect Gizzell.

Anger over the girl’s death sparked a legislative hearing in winter 2013 in which DCFS disclosed it made mistakes in recording statistics related for child maltreatment deaths.